Chapter 2051

Xia De, having left home, naturally did not know about the conversation taking place there. By this time, he had already walked out of the Dragon Nest, and after traveling through the low-lying woods for a while, he saw the St. George Stone Bridge under the night sky.

The St. George Stone Bridge is quite bustling during the day, but at night, there are almost no pedestrians here. The gas street lamps only exist at the end of the stone bridge near the city walls, and the bridgehead leading to the countryside north of the city has only a little moonlight and the glow of handheld kerosene lamps.

Several figures riding horses, wearing cloaks and hoods, were already waiting for Xia De by the bridge. Because he had the badge for detecting witches, Xia De was not worried about recognizing the wrong people. Only after walking closer did he see that those participating in tonight's operation were Miss Belindell, Miss Matilda, and two other nine-ringed young ladies.

Come to think of it, although this is Miss Belindell's territory, in reality, the manpower she can mobilize is not large. On one hand, it is because her own combat ability is not strong, making it inconvenient to recruit followers; on the other hand, it is also because this is Moon Bay, and wanting to hide oneself is also a difficult matter.

Therefore, compared to Miss Galina, Miss Bernice, Megan, and Audrey, who were originally also at the eleventh tier, the high-ringed young ladies under her command are few. These two nine-ringed young ladies can probably be considered core members among her followers.

The four of them were leading five horses. For the sake of convenience, even Miss Belindell was not wearing a skirt, but rather a pair of trousers that quite flattered her leg shape. Seeing Xia De looking her up and down, the witch, hidden under her hood, felt somewhat uncomfortable, but fortunately, Xia De quickly averted his gaze.

"Mr. Watson, can you ride a horse?"

"I can. During the winter, I often rode horses through the countryside and woods of the Randall Valley."

This was the truth.

"Why did you come from outside the city?"

The witch asked again, and also glanced at the direction of the woods from which Xia De had come. Miss Matilda, who was to the side, handed the reins to Xia De. Xia De patted the head of the date-red horse that had a tuft of white hair on its forehead, and the latter behaved very docilely.

"Went outside the city to take care of some business. Let's set off now; how long will the journey take?"

"If we are lucky, less than an hour."

As the witch spoke, the four ladies nimbly mounted their horses, and Xia De also sat in the saddle, ready to set off. At this moment, Miss Belindell also saw the long sword hanging at his waist, raised her eyebrows in some surprise, and finally urged:

"I don't know what will happen tonight. Although Vanessa says you are very skilled in combat, except for Matilda who is a six-ring, everyone else here is of a higher level than you. If you really encounter trouble, stand in the back and use your time sorcery to help control the situation."

"Understood."

Xia De nodded in agreement, adjusted the scabbard at his waist, and then flicked the reins, following the four ladies as they galloped toward the unlit country path.

Miss Belindell's horsemanship is quite good, probably just as Princess Lei Qianya said; young ladies from great noble families all receive similar training. She took the lead in front, with the others following behind. The group of five set off from the St. George Stone Bridge, first traveling north along the country dirt road, and then turning northwest at a five-way intersection centered on a huge locust tree. Afterward, they swept past the rural farmland and villages, entering the rugged mountainous area in the north of the Moon Bay region known as the "Whispering Hills."

This mountain forest is an important source of local timber and also an important forest farm controlled by the Wood family, but the group's destination was not here yet. The mountain forest was not suitable for horses to gallop, but Miss Belindell found a small path in the forest that seemed to be used by loggers to transport timber, leading everyone to continue moving northwest.

They crossed the rugged narrow paths between the hills, traveled along paths winding on nearly sixty-degree slopes, rode their horses across small wooden bridges set up over mountain forest rivers, made the horses jump over mountain streams, and even used whistling sounds to scare away the wolf pack that had surrounded them. Finally, the galloping mounts veered off the forest path and leaped onto the hills, stopping under a giant tree in the southwest of the "Whispering Hills."

The volume of that giant tree certainly cannot be compared to the giant tree that seals the "Gap of Life and Death" at the top of Sicar Mountain or the one that seals the unstable space on Green Island. It is also not the tallest tree in the vicinity, but its huge canopy, developed root system, and tree patterns that carry the vicissitudes of time all prove its antiquity.

The thick, heavy tree roots made the land around the trunk rugged and uneven, and the surface of the slightly tilted trunk was wrinkled bark that looked like a human face in the dark night.

Without summoning light orbs, the maids took torches out of their saddlebags for illumination. Xia De dismounted with them, and Miss Belindell introduced:

"This is the place. Whether this ancient tree is the oldest tree in the Whispering Hills is not certain, but it has at least a thousand years of history. Villagers living in nearby villages even come to worship this tree every year, believing it has the ability to bring favorable weather for the coming year."

The five horses were tied in the woods a little further away from the giant tree. The two nine-ringed ladies walked in the back, while Xia De and Miss Matilda followed beside the Great Witch of Fate.

The witch herself did not hold a torch; she looked up at the canopy of the ancient giant tree. Starlight spilled onto her face through the gaps in the canopy, making the witch's face appear even more tender and charming:

"Combining the information from the family documents I deciphered with my own divination investigation, this tree is the target for tonight."

As she spoke, she placed her hand on the trunk, and after waiting for a moment, she said to Xia De and the others:

"This tree has traces of elements, not very obvious, it seems we haven't found the wrong place."

"Miss, what should we do next?"

Miss Matilda asked, so the witch took out a divination card, drew one, and then said to everyone:

"Look around to see if there are any caves nearby; do not go far from this tree."

With a diviner present, the investigation became incomparably simple.

"No need to look, I found it."

And a space-ability user also makes things even simpler:

"The space under this tree is empty; there is a hidden cave between the tree roots. The cave has only one entrance, and the internal space is not large."

"How did you find it?"

The witch was somewhat surprised:

"Space ability?"

"Yes, sensing space. Follow me."

That ancient but tilted giant tree was at the top of the low hills. Xia De led the four ladies downward, circled a large loop around the edge of the hills that looked like platforms, and finally stopped in front of a stone cliff below the southwest side of the giant tree.

This place was only about two meters high from the giant tree above the hills. Although one could see the cave entrance by pushing aside the dense weeds, if it weren't for Xia De leading the way, it would not be easy to find this place in the night.

"Claw marks."

When everyone was preparing to enter, the witch pointed to the shallow marks on the left side of the cave entrance. Some kind of sharp claws had left marks here. Xia De's first reaction was dragon claws, but looking closely, he felt it definitely wasn't.

Although the claw marks did not look clear, one could not infer from this that they were left a long time ago. The witch began to draw cards again, the three maids also used sensing-type sorcery, and Xia De closed his eyes:

"Heart of Stone."

The hilly woods under the night sky were very suitable for using this kind of sensing-type sorcery. Besides the five heartbeats including his own beside him, in the deepest part of the cave, a strong heartbeat like ripples echoing in circles was also sensed by Xia De:

"There is something inside, one, and it is not human."

The Great Witch of Fate's divination also had results:

"Moon, teeth, blood."

The black-haired maid whom the witch called "Maggie" added:

"I smell the stench of a wolf."

"A werewolf?"

Xia De asked curiously:

"Does the Moon Bay region still have such things?"

Although in some strange literary works, werewolves often appear together with vampires, in reality, the number of active werewolves is far lower than the modern vampires represented by Mr. Bernhardt. And vampires mostly live in groups, or at least have kin nearby, but werewolves are often solitary.

Vampires hate being compared with werewolves and believe that werewolves are not a separate race, but cursed people suffering from "lycanthropy." This view is not incorrect; after all, vampires can control whether they reveal their non-human appearance, but once it is a full moon, unless there is a "wolfsbane potion" prepared by a potion master, a werewolf will definitely transform... and this world has three moons.

"I don't care much about the mountain forest areas outside Moon Bay City; it might be a guy good at hiding."

Miss Belindell was also surprised:

"I haven't heard of werewolves in the local area before. However, the yellow moon is full tonight. Although werewolves don't have the blood-sucking instinct and the tearing effect of claws as they do during a red moon, and don't have the talent to be immune to holy attacks as they do during a silver moon, tonight its physical fitness and recovery ability will be greatly improved. Be careful."

Everyone nodded, following the witch deeper into the cave while drinking potions or adding temporary passive states to themselves.

The winding passage was damp and cold, and tree roots penetrated the rock walls, appearing like bared fangs and brandished claws. There was a faint stench inside the cave, and after walking more than fifty steps inward, the torches in the maids' hands illuminated the open cave located directly below the giant tree on the hill. The cave was roughly gourd-shaped, with the middle part narrowing. The werewolf seemed to live in the outer cave, and one could see a bed made of straw and a pile of firewood that had just been extinguished by the wall.

Just as everyone looked at the sparks by the wall, a sound of wind came from above. The furry, pitch-black monster crouching above the cave cliff widened its yellow eyes, pounced, and lunged from top to bottom at the woman standing at the very front of the team.

Boom~

Its successful landing made the entire cave tremble. While rustling dust fell from the top of the cave, the phantoms of the group also disappeared into the air.

"Curse of Weakness!"

"Holy Light of Exorcism!"

"Arad's Beast Repelling Art!"

The sorcery of the three maid ladies followed closely as the werewolf landed and dissipated its force, and that eleventh-tier Great Witch of Fate raised her hand and cast a very famous high-ring sorcery:

"Finger of Death!"